Hello, I am brand new to Fallout 3. I'm a huge ES fans and decided to give this title a try. I love the game, but I'm a little stuck. I got to Megaton after escaping the Vault. I'm halfway or so through Moira's quest, and just beginning Lucy West's quest chain. My problem is I am at max carrying capacity and nobody in town has any caps left for me to sell them my stuff. I've waited well over 3 days, and still nothing. Usually, with ES, that works. Am I missing something? I don't have any quests that would bring me to another area with a vendor as far as I know. Any help would b appreciated. Thanks.

You can always barter the junk you're carrying for other items that are more valuable and have less weight.

For example, if you have 100 caps worth of lawnmower blades, baseball gloves, and scrap metal that take up 75 lbs in your inventory; you can trade all of it for some ammunition (which is weightless) and then sell the ammunition later on when you find more vendors.

Try checking out the front of Megaton as well for the wandering caravans they should be there iirc every two days

Hi Kranmar, you seem to be doing well so far, unfortunately there is FAR more stuff than caps to buy it with, the sheer amount of crap out there is enormous and some enemies respawn ( complete with high value equipment ) but here's a couple of things that might help.

There are travelling vendors who stop regularly outside Megaton, they normally have a decent number of caps to buy your loot, each specialises in different goods and they always seemed to restock quickly in each. Not too sure of the times they appear but you can use the wait function if there isn't one there.
If all the vendors in Megaton ( 5 I think ) have no caps, I found buying useful weightless items like chems and ammo from them and getting the money back via bent tin cans handy.

Most 'civilized' towns will have vendors so more will be available the more you do quests and explore ( Lucy's leads to more traders eventually ).
There are some wasteland traders too but these don't have many caps and can be hard to find as they are not marked on the map.

Start looking for somewhere safe to stash your stuff because some of it is of more use to you than selling it.
'Owned' and temporary player housing is essential to the serious scavenger. Even containers in the wasteland can be 'safe' although not ALL are, the Nukacola machine or mailbox in Springvale outside Megaton should do fine until you work out somewhere more permanent.

Eventually, you will have a decent 'network' of towns to sell in. I used to fast travel around this network after looting a new location of everything ( wearing light clothes and carrying only one gun to maximise carrying capacity ) making multiple trips back and forth.
If you think this sounds more like an OCD than fun then you are just going to have to leave stuff behind, hehehe.

I do the vey same thing in Oblivion! I was just hoping that by using the wait function for 24 hours, the vendors would a new stack of caps. In both Oblivion and Skyrim, I do that and it works. I guess they didn't copy and paste EVERYTHING from Elder Scrolls, lol. I'm going to head to Tenpenny Tower as I know where it is. I was planning on blowing the bomb in Megaton up after I finished Moira's and Lucy's quests. Hopefully, I can find a vendor or 2 there to sell to. Otherwise, I'll find an empty garbage can or something for now, or if I have to drop some stuff, I will. Thanks for the tips. Happy New Year!

I find tradeing to the doctor for stimpaks probably the best junk sink.

What or why the vendors restock is a mystery to me still. There must be some sort of ryme or reason though ^^shrug^^

Ya dont go selling all of what appear to be parts in the misc catagory... I find superduper mart a great place to stash stuff , although almost any place will do though.

Wayback when I started my first play through and didn’t know how to get the house and I had a problem with being overloaded all the time, The vendors in Megaton were always out of caps, so I just dropped all my excess loot in the back of Moira’s store. It will stay there forever. The only problem is when some of her boyfriends come in and walk over the stuff scattering it about.

Three days should work to reset a vendors inventory- or try four. Develop more vendors, it’s not that hard to get to Tenpenny’s without getting killed. Same for Paradise Falls, except that will coast you 500 caps to get in. Swim down the river to Rivet City if you need more vendors. Or go downtown and find Underworld for another vendor.

Just do what i do and find an empty box or somekind of container to store the things you arent using at the moment and come back later if you need whatever you put in the box. But make sure its in a place thats easy to remember because i lost my power armor that heals you somewhere in Rivet City in a random filing cabernet. Its been 9 months since i lost it and im still looking.

It probably got 'destroyed' for lack of a better term because the container reset

That's tragic, hopefully it will turn up.
Had a relocking hard or very hard filing cabinet that always yielded decent loot in Rivet City, went on for ages.
Never like leaving anything in the more 'generic' containers like cabinets, desks or metal boxes unless its for a short time after looting loads from a dungeon and multiple trips to the shops to sell it quickly.
Ammo boxes, Safes & medical boxes have never been any trouble, something to do with the respawn or something I guess?

I just recently started FO3 as well ('bout 2 weeks ago) and find they improved quite a few things. There are more unique landscapes, although the theme gets kinda dull after a while.

What I did at lower levels was first sell 'till the vendor was out of caps, then get them to repair my gear and then sell the rest of my junk. I used combat armor for the longest time and couldn't find material to repair it with (didn't know Talon Company used similar armor 'till recently). So I got the vendors to repair my stuff and then get those caps back by selling the rest of my junk.

Also, so far I'm finding dungeons don't respawn. So find your own free home in the wastelands anywhere you want. Just clear out the baddies once and you're set. Perhaps I haven't played long enough, but so far I've noticed the containers that already have loot in them (in dungeons) don't respawn and the ones that were empty to start with (in dungeons) may spawn with loot at random once, but after that will remain the same?

LOL don't put things in containers you don't own! They can get randomly reset and *poof* there goes all your hard-earned loot. Just to be clear, the only containers you own are those inside any housing you bought or were given as a quest reward.

Only one dungeon respawns on the interior (as well as exterior of course) but there is much speculation if it's a glitch or not, as the name of the location... ahem... stands out.
As for containers, for me on the 360:

All Nuka Cola machines, ammo boxes, first aid kits and player storage in the game-designated housing will be safe all game, with the exception of the desk for me in the Megaton house. Some refrigerators in the wild are safe, but I test them with a single bullet and leaving the game cell for several days. All containers that had stuff in them originally, constantly respawn, but if I found something good the first time, it's always crap the subsequent times.

Wow, I try to think like a wastelander and only take necessities (food, ammo, and stronger guns).

I don't touch misc. stuff unless its cigarettes (they sell for a good amount at lower levels), fission batteries (they sell for a really good amount, or if I am making one of the craftable weapons.

The mailbox in Springvale is pretty safe, I left 5 suits of vault security armor and I came back about two in game months later with it still there.

Or you could drop everything in the Vault 101 entrance. Nobody ever goes there and my loot never gets moved.

This holds really true. On a couple of plays, I walked overencumbered with about 3000 pounds of armor and weapons, following Liberty Prime on his jaunt. I dropped it all right there before entering the building, and it was all there when I went back about 3 weeks, in game. Though I have dropped stuff near Raider spots, and they've picked it up. But not always. On one play many characters ago, I staged huge battles between the Enclave and Raiders by dragging their bodies to strategic spots around Super Duper Mart. Got a little laggy, but great fun for several days before they all wandered back to their original spawns. I tried to give the raiders a chance by equipping them with power armor and weapons. RPPing works really well of course, but they only pick up stuff from time to time.

Hmm. So far I haven't had any problem with the desk in my Megaton home. Of course I have the place fully decked out (all regular purchasable furnishings/ upgrades.

My previous post is of course just initial observations and they are by no means ensured to be accurate. Since ammo boxes didn't respawn with loot, I assumed stuff like filing cabinets, other desks, and lockers were the same.

You can stash your excess stuff in the safes that are scattered around. You can also use Springvale School as a temp or permanent home because the inside does not respawn. I think there are a couple of safes in there. I am pretty sure safes in the wasteland do not respawn.

Safes are just like any other container.

So do safes reset or not? I'm getting confused :s
I'd like to know as I've set up a second base at Gibson house and their is a safe there that would benefit my character.

Safes are safe.

If you're maxed out in carrying capacity, it might be helpful to earn your house in Megaton and safely store items there. That way, you could buy and sell items to vendors as you locate them in your travels.

Or Tenpenny Twoer

Oh yeh, you're right. (I went that route last time around...) Good call...!

I have found that you get the highest prices for your stuff at Tenpenny Tower. I try to stop there as often as possible and usually clean out thier caps.

Absolutely right. I admitted that too...